


Superb Storyteller

by Sydney_Sunshine



Category: Sneaky Pete (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Season/Series 03, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-07-31 21:36:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20122048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sydney_Sunshine/pseuds/Sydney_Sunshine
Summary: A story about how the whole family moves on after the season 3 finale.After their return to the east coast the normal madness goes on...





	1. Partings

**Author's Note:**

> My take on what might happen in a fourth season, because I'm devastated that they cancelled this amazing show and it needs to go on, at least in my imagination :)  
Hope you all enjoy it!  
Please note, that I'm not a native speaker so there might be some mistakes.  
Kudos and/or comments are always appreaciated!

He didn’t dare to take another look back, afraid that if he did so, he wouldn’t bring up enough courage to leave at all. But leaving really was his only option. So he just walked on and on and on. Leaving the beach behind and getting on his way to L.A. His first stop would be at the hotel to get his marginal belongings and then he would head out of the city and see where it would take him. As Katie once said to him, he always landed on his feet and so it would be this time.

Nevertheless at this point, Marius really couldn’t fathom how much he would miss them. He still couldn’t believe that he kind of willfully disregarded the first rule of the “life”: Never get attached! But really, how could he not get attached? He was preaching to the choir with the Bernhardt’s and their craving to welcome the long-lost grandson in the sweet bosom of the family again. Even with all his flaws, or at least the ones they did know of, they accepted and even loved him nonetheless. They made him part of their family, a real family. Although they were a strange bunch of people to begin with, but he had grown so unbelievably fond of them, somehow wishing the goodbye wouldn’t be necessary right now. And what a bittersweet goodbye it had become. He lingered in Otto’s arms and was wishing for this hug to never end. His fake grandfather really was a hugger. On the outside he was the more emotional one in comparison with Audrey, but Marius knew, that the matriarch of the family also took a liking to him, even though she wouldn’t show it in the ways, that her husband did. He would miss nosy Carly and Taylor, too. And of course Julia. When his thoughts turned in her direction, he felt his insides convulsing. The last three days, since Julia had been kidnapped, where awfully stressful and took a toll on him; of course he would never let anything happen to her. He had always felt a certain connection to Julia, right from the beginning. She was such a smart, strong woman and with her being the only one in the know about his real identity this special bond paradoxically grew stronger, although since finding out, she wasn’t being her nicest self towards him, For a split second he even had thought that Julia had asked him “Do you love me?” instead of “Do you love her” and meaning Lizzie. This could have either been a Freudian slip on Julia’s side, or just wishful thinking on his side. Marius thought about his feelings towards her a lot lately, but he didn’t come to a real conclusion. And as any real relationship was off limits anyway, he didn’t bother to get a definitive answer.  
Thinking of Lizzie, Marius really didn’t feel anything anymore. It was kind of true, what he said to Julia on the beach, he did love her, but sometimes just love wasn’t enough to maintain a solid bond with another person. It seemed to him, that they both had moved in different directions. Lizzie had this aura of crazy around her, always doing the unexpected. Of course, that was one of the things that attracted him to her in the first place, but he was not in his twenties anymore and over the last couple of days it became apparent, that they wanted different things out of life. Marius had no idea, where the life would take her now, that they once again parted ways. For all he knew, she managed to escape the cops, who had showed up at the warehouse just in time to get to Chuck aka Damon Neeskins and his thugs, leaving the Bernhardt’s bail bonds office still short of the 250,000 dollar bond, but Marius already took care of that. So to him this goodbye on the beach seemed like a pretty clean cut, only leaving him with the nagging suspicion that his fake family knew more, than they let on. Carly telling him about her ambition to study psychology and her emphasis on the “why people do stuff” seemed to be an excellent fit for his situation and with Audrey one could never be sure, what she was thinking. Perhaps real Pete would come back to the farm sometime and clear up the whole charade or Julia would eventually tell them, who knew. All Marius knew, was that, he wanted to visit his brother on his way back to the east coast, because, what he had learned in this couple of weeks, he spent with the Bernhardt’s, was that family is really all that matters.

* * *

“The burgers, fries and soda were fucking delicious, weren’t they?” Julia asked in the round, “I’m really no west coast fan, but all this fuss about the good food in this area seems to be true!”  
This was her third or fourth desperate attempt to lighten up the mood and get a conversation going, even though she was the one, who was entitled to feel miserable. After all she was the one, who had been held hostage for nearly three days, even more, when counting the hours she spend in Sean’s “custody”. Plus she had this whole shit to deal with back in Connecticut and she was missing Marius, too, more than the other family members would know. At first Otto had been hopeful, that Pete, as Marius was still known to them, would return. But with each passing minute it became clear that he was gone for good. Disappeared, vanished, just as quickly, as he had come into their lives merely two month ago. Funny really, Julia had the feeling she had known Marius a lot longer than just the couple of weeks it had been in reality.  
Now there were glum expressions everywhere she looked. Audrey had thrown a quick fit, and then the family ate their food in pregnant silence, only accompanied by the clatter of cutlery on the plates and an occasional sigh or smack.

“All right, so let’s get the bill and head to the hotel. We need to check-out by 4 p.m. I’m not planning on spending any more money, money, which we don’t have by the way. In fact I recall something about losing a skip, and with her 250,000 dollars,” Audrey was the first one to break the silence. “I am driving with Taylor and Otto, so that we can take turns in the driver’s seat. And Julia, you and Carly will take the flight at 20.35 this evening.”

“Grandma, I had…,” Carly’s protest was cut short by her grandmother “There’s nothing to discuss here, I already booked the flights and you have to get back as soon as possible anyway, I remember a certain college essay, which needs some work done.”

Julia only nodded in response, completely lost in her thoughts. Money had been her cue and suddenly the diamonds sitting in her left jacket pocket felt massive, not like the tiny, twinkling stones they were, but more like solid rocks. How the hell was she supposed to get them into cash? And why ever did Marius give them to her in the first place? He was such an odd guy. Every time she thought, she had figured him out; he or his actions proofed her otherwise. She still needed to catch up on all that had happened prior to her rescue, but apparently Marius had been a big help and without him, she might as well have ended up as fish food. His commitment left her puzzled, all the more so, as she hadn’t been exactly kind to him, since she found out that in fact he was just a common crook and imposter and not really the long-lost family member. But who was the real Marius Josipovic? She knew nothing or merely nothing about this guy, and as he decided to leave them all behind, she would never know. All her gut feeling told her was, that he somehow wasn’t a bad person even though his chosen profession would suggest otherwise. Plus she had to admit, that she cared about him and liked being around him. For now she didn’t have the energy to explore more of his actions and what story they told or her own feelings towards him. Julia concentrated on what lay ahead and was really happy that she would get on a plane in the evening and be in Bridgeport by tomorrow morning, so that finally she could see her kids again.


	2. Decisions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, 
> 
> hope you are ready for the second chapter.  
Kudos and/or comments are always appreciated, so don't hesitate and let me know what you think :)

Taylor wasn’t pleased at all at the prospect of driving all the way back across country and this time not only with Otto, but with both his grandparents, who were – on top of it all – not in their best mood. But were they ever?

In the early, ungodly morning hours, gift of the time difference between the east and the west coast, Taylor had received a call from the chief of police in Bridgeport telling him, that his last stunt had been one too many and that they were serious about his dismissal. He then went on, babbling about how it could be a chance to move on for him, and that not everybody is suitable for this line of work and so on and so on. Taylor found himself neither listening, nor caring anymore.

These last days here in California he realized that he wanted more out of life than being a simple cop, roaming the streets at all times of the day, always taking the fall for the safety of the people, people, who really didn’t care or appreciated his efforts most of the time. Moreover the low payment being another point, which left him kind of cheering, that this chapter of his life would be over for good. He would find a better job and a new girlfriend, which wasn’t already married or a former mistress of his grandfather and move on with his life. First thing after he got back, he would tell Lorraine that there wasn’t a future for the both of them. Taylor was sure she would understand. From their first encounter in her shop, there had been a certain attraction – or perhaps sexual tension would be more fitting – between them, but nothing beyond that and definitely not something that could be used as a common ground to start building a solid relationship. The one night they’ve spent together had been great, awesome even. But now it was time to move on.

Taylor wanted and in light of his bank account needed to get a new job, as soon as possible. Perhaps his cousin Pete would know where to turn to; he seemed to know an awful lot of people. He didn’t want to do something illegal of course, but certain connections could always come in useful. And it seemed that Julia had found work as an insurance investigator benefitting from Pete’s good contacts. His shady cousin, he smiled as he thought about him. Taylor was sure that he would return at some point. The last days had been tough, especially for Pete and who could blame him, if he wanted some time alone, without this taxing family. Taylor certainly didn’t.

After Julia’s rescue at the docks, and their short stop at the hotel before getting lunch at the beach, Taylor had walked in on him as he was getting out of his wet clothes and was shocked to see his torso dyed in almost all colours of the rainbow. But of course his cousin wouldn’t really tell him, where he got the bruises, he just put him off with some cryptic bullshit about certain things that need to be done and that his initial plan hadn’t turned out like he wanted it to. At his suggestion to go and see a doctor about it, Pete just brushed his concerns aside and told him that he had looked worse in the past and that he would be fine. This encounter made Taylor reconsider, that he really knew next to nothing of what Pete had been up to in this last twenty years, other than the few years he spent in jail. With Maggie as a mother it wasn’t hard to imagine that his teenage years hadn’t been exactly rosy. For fuck’s sake she had pretended to be her dead sister, even if she had problems of her own, what kind of person does that? Taylor was once again reassured, that luckily Maggie’s son had turned out to be a better person than his mother. Even if he didn’t know an awful lot about his cousin, his devotion to rescuing Julia had proven that family clearly meant something to him.

After eating every last crumble of the delicious burgers, Taylor drove the whole family back to the hotel, with Otto comfortable on the passenger seat and grandma, Julia and Carly crouched in the backseats like hens in a laying battery. It took them only a few minutes to collect their stuff, check out and meet up again at the car. Taylor then drove Julia and Carly to the airport, leaving his grandparents in a diner near the 105, where he would pick them up again after dropping his sisters off. He toyed with the idea of leaving them there and enjoying a silent, peaceful ride back home, but in the end he was too much of a good guy to go through with this idea, even though he dreaded the ride, because eventually he had to tell them about his dismissal. And knowing Audrey she probably already smelled on him that something was off and spending so much time with her in the close proximity of a car was not his ideal.

As he entered the diner, he heard his grandparent before he saw them, arguing in loud voices over whose turn it would be in the driver’s seat. What was it with them always fighting about who was the one who would be driving? As they weren’t able to find an agreement, it was Taylor who took the first shift, driving the first of the almost 3,000 miles back home. They were leaving Los Angeles behind just as the big sun began to go down, painting the sky a bright and glistering orange.

* * *

In the queue at the airport security Julia was preoccupied with texting on her phone, not aware of the pair of arms, which embraced her in a tight squeeze. After her initial surprise she finally gave in and replied the hug. The sisters were clearly enjoying this moment of closeness. With the rush of the past adventure finally behind them, every strain had fallen off them, so now Carly realized for the first time that she came quite close to losing her beloved, big sister. Who would have thought of the turn the events would take; initially she came out here in search for her dead mother, who then was alive for a couple of days, only to turn out dead all along. In the end Carly was only glad that they all made it out alive. If she wrote something about the days she spent here in California in her college essay her teacher would probably detain her and send her off to some mental ward.

After a couple of minutes in the tight embrace, Carly was finally able to let Julia go; silent tears now falling down her cheeks, which she quickly wiped away with her fingers.

“I’m sorry, but everything was just so…we never had time to really…,” Carly rang for words.

“I know, I know, Carly...,” was all Julia could reply, without getting all teary again herself. She lovingly stroked her little sister over that black hair of hers. She always envied Carly her hair colour, but of course would never in a million years tell her so. Carly really looked just like their late mother, sometimes so much it became almost unbearable.

“So, who were you texting to?” Carly asked, both to change the subject and to fulfill her immanent curiosity.

“Oh, nobody really”, Julia chuckled, “I was just reminding Lance, that I’ll be back in Bridgeport tomorrow morning and would like to pick up Ellen from school and Jacob from daycare myself.”

“That sounds like something to look forward to”, Carly replied, a slight smile forming on her face.

“Yeah, I am really getting anxious for holding them in my arms once again”, Julia stated, adding in her thoughts, and only God knows for how long I will be able to be there for them with a prison sentence looming at the horizon.

“I bet especially Trish is giddy with excitement, that finally she doesn’t have the children running about in her house anymore.”

“Yeah, the only way she knows how to deal with them is by buying her way into their hearts”, Julia confirmed.

“You know what, I think Ellen likes even Pete, who she just met for the first time a couple of weeks ago, more than her.” Carly joked.

Julia opened her mouth, but her mind wasn’t able to form a coherent answer, so she just nodded slightly and shut her mouth again. Carly on the other hand wanted to explore this subject a little more.

“You know that he has been a big help in getting you back from Chuck and his guys, don’t you?” Carly asked “Do you remember Back in Bridgeport,... why again would you give me the advice of not talking to him anymore?”

“Well, that was …he is not…let’s just say I had my reasons, okay?” Julia babbled.

“Ah, yes, I see.” Carly replied short-spoken and somewhat disappointed that she didn’t get a definite answer, once again her big sister treating her like she was still a little kid. But the tone with which Julia spoke made it clear that she wasn’t in the mood to start a discussion. And with each passing minute they were getting closer to the security check anyway, so she had to explore this subject at a later time. And then Carly was also determined to get an answer as to what was that ominous present cousin Pete gave Julia at the beach. They had a five hour flight ahead of them that seemed like enough time to dig deeper and get to the bottom of things.

Julia just hoped that there wouldn’t be a problem with airport security, but it was not not allowed to bring a bag full of diamonds with her, or was it? She didn’t have any real luggage, coming here on short notice on a private jet, so she just left the tiny stones in the cloth in her coat pocket. Marius would know such things, and if there would be a problem, he would know how to solve it. That was what he did for a living after all. Thinking of Marius, Julia wondered what he’d up to now. Considering that he was still on parole, he had to return to the state of New York sometime soon.

* * *

Marius hitched two different rides and reached Vegas in the dark. The most appropriate time to arrive there, he thought, with all the lighting and neon signs shining in their full glory. He had never liked Vegas, for as long as he could remember, but he couldn’t remember where this animosity had its roots. He got the driver, a nice middle-aged chap from Salt Lake City on his way back home from a business trip to the west coast, to drop him off only two blocks away from the hotel, which he had booked online on the way. He thanked the guy, got out of the car and walked the rest of the distance, taking in the clear and cold night air, symbolic for the fresh start, which he once again needed in his life.

His brother would be working at this time of the day, so Marius didn’t bother to make his presence known just yet. He would text him later and would ask for a meeting the next day at lunch time. Marius knew that his little brother liked to sleep in. He didn’t know if Eddie would be pleased to see him, but he didn’t plan on staying that long, anyway. Plus he had his parole officer to deal with, back in New York and couldn’t really postpone yet another meeting. He was curious, if Karolina would be there, too. Last he heard from her, was about a month ago when she texted him, that all was well back here in Nevada. She added a couple of fancy photographs from the Casino she bought herself into. She was a beautiful and smart woman, a dangerous combination, especially in a city like Las Vegas, but apart from these traits, she was also pretty resourceful. She would take care of his little brother, Marius was sure of that, just like he had taken care of him their whole lives. Lost in thoughts Marius nearly walked passed the entrance of the hotel. He quickly checked in and all but collapsed on the bed in his room. He didn’t bother to change, just took of his shoes and jacket and finally fell in a dreamless sleep.


End file.
